Review: Saints Row 2

About:

Released on: Xbox 360 (version reviewed), PlayStation 3, PC

Developed By: Volition

Who Also Developed: The original Saint’s Row, the Red Faction games (including the recent Red Faction: Guerilla)

Published By: THQ

Players: One local, two in online co-op and more in online multiplayer modes.

Demo Available: No

Additional Content: Two premium DLC packs continuing the story, for PS3 and 360 (not PC).  One additional free pack with extra clothing and tattoos for PS3 and 360 (not PC).

Ben’s Progress: Game completed on the normal difficulty. 13 of 50 achievements earned (non-DLC).

Note: I don’t play online much, and haven’t tried any of the online features of Saints Row 2.

Today’s Play – End of Saints

As expected, today I was able to finish up the Saints Row 2 storyline.  Read on for details, but obviously it includes lots of spoilers.  As before, the nameless character you control is referred to as “The Boss”.

Saints Row 2

Yesterday I stopped playing after the mission I was on turned out to be difficult and had no checkpoints, sending you all the way back to the start each time.  Today things went better and I almost completed it first time, but failed maybe twenty seconds from completing it thanks to a helicopter firing at my boat with homing missiles. There’s no obvious way to dodge them, and after being sent all the way back to the mission’s start I considered just giving up on the game.

Yesterday’s Play – Lots of Saints

As mentioned yesterday, I sunk a lot of time into Saints Row 2, so much so that I didn’t end up having time to make a Today’s Play entry.  I finished off the entirety of the Brotherhood storyline and began the game’s final set of missions, so spoilers follow for those two.

Saints Row 2

The bank raid that gave me problems the day before went much more smoothly this time, with the SWAT for some reason no longer happily shooting my human shield.   The mission ends with a cutscene of Maero leaping cars in his monster truck, not realising that there’s an extra car at the end containing his girlfriend.  He crushes the car in his landing, killing her, with your character coming in at the end to let him know.

Today’s Play – Still Just Saints

Just Saints Row 2 again today, taking on the Brotherhood gang.  Obviously the following will contain spoilers for the Brotherood missions, so don’t read it if that matters to you.  Otherwise, read on for details.

Saints Row 2

The Brotherhood gang of Saints Row 2 are a fairly macho bunch, all monster trucks, metal and tattoos.  They’re led by Maero, a giant tattooed man voiced by Michael Dorn.  Dorn is no stranger to videogame voice work, having done lots of work as Worf in Star Trek games, as well as key characters in games like Fallout 2.  Saints Row 2 has a few notable actors providing voice work actually, with people like  Neil Patrick Harris, Eliza Dushku and Daniel Dae Kim voicing characters.

Today’s Play – Just Saints

I didn’t find much time for gaming today, but did manage to spend some time with Saints Row 2, doing one of its wackier activities.  Read on for details.

Saints Row 2

One of the things I like about Saints Row 2 is that by simply playing through the game’s story you claim sections of the city, and from each territory you control you get a small daily income of $500.  At this stage of the game it’s nice to be able to visit the stash and find considerable sums of money inside.

Today’s Play: LittleBig Noby Saints

A little more variation in today’s games, with a bit of LittleBigPlanet and a lot of Saint’s Row 2 added to the regular Noby Noby Boy excursion.

LittleBigPlanet

LittleBigPlanet is another of my nephew’s favourite games right now, and he has spent a considerable amount of time on it getting every item, completing every level without dying, playing levels online and spending hours making his own levels and experiments.

The DLC for the game has been plentiful, but varies in value.  On the one side there’s the fantastic Metal Gear Solid pack that added the paintball gun (which radically transforms the game) and had several levels, culminating in an incredibly complicated boss encounter (that’s complicated to make, not to defeat), while at the other end there are just costumes.